Chapter 132
Ch 132 Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi
Ch 132 -- Reunion in the Middle of a Dungeon
We moved into the dungeon, advancing quickly through a series of stone-walled passageways . Monsters that appeared as we approached were dealt with by Fer and Dora-chan with no apparent effort . I felt the rate at which we were moving was a bit too fast, we should be more careful but Fer and Dora-chan wouldn't be dissuaded . I was proved right a moment later .
Hyun--- . "Waah!" An arrow flew past my eyes, bouncing off Fer's Barrier . Some kind of dungeon trap?
"Oh, this dungeon has arrow traps . " Dora-chan commented as he skilfully dodged around the deflected arrow in mid-flight . "The big guy's Barrier will come in useful after all . "
"There's no problem with traps because that guy has Perfect Defence, he doesn't really need my Barrier . " Fer said telepathically, continuing to sprint down the corridor . Huh? Can Perfect Defence protect me from inanimate traps? I thought Perfect Defence was 'a Skill that completely protects against physical attack and magical attack from hostile forces' . How could a trap be a 'hostile force'? I thought that meant some person or monster had to be hostile to me for the Skill to protect me .
"Ah, that's right . You're ignorant about dungeons and how they work . " Fer said . Well, I had a vague idea about dungeons from the games I had played, if you defeat monsters you get valuable drops, there are treasure chests here and there, traps and pitfalls and the like . Fer went on to explain how dungeons worked in this world .
"A dungeon attracts people to enter them with drop items and treasure chests that can be obtained by defeating stronger monsters . Sometimes the people are killed by the traps and monsters . Those dead people are absorbed by the dungeon as nourishment and the dungeon grows . " Another group of monsters fell to Fer's magic attacks, Kobolds? it happened in a blur and then we were around a corner before I could look back to check, and he continued his explanation . "Because of this, a dungeon is considered to be a living being . So, you see, a trap is a hostile attack by the dungeon creature and so Perfect Defence protects you from them . "
Oh I see . Fer's explanation made it clear the dungeon really was a living thing . Fer went on to tell me about the dungeon's core . It was the heart of any dungeon and meant the dungeon would live and slowly grow unless the core was broken or captured whole and removed from its dungeon .
"If you break the dungeon core or remove it, what happens to the dungeon?" I asked as more unidentifiable monsters appeared before us, were dealt with and left far behind as Fer rushed through the dungeon . Dora-chan was flying alongside us and keeping up with no apparent difficulty .
"It means the dungeon dies . It becomes merely a hole in the ground that produces nothing, no monsters, no treasures . However the dungeon core is always moving around in the dungeon so it's almost impossible for most people to find it . "
"When you say 'almost impossible' and 'most people', would you be able to find it, Fer? After all you have that monster-detecting ability of yours . " I asked . Fer agreed that he could, with some difficulty and a lot of effort, find the dungeon core if he wanted to, but as he went on, "It would be stupid to kill an entertaining playground like this dungeon" .
From then on I didn't worry about the traps we triggered in our rush through the dungeon passageways . Arrows and spears bounced off Fer's Barrier and he jumped easily over the pitfalls that opened in our path . Each level's boss was dealt with in a passing blow by Fer or Dora-chan and we didn't even slow down as we descended the stairs behind the dead monster . By the way, Sui-chan was fast asleep in her leather bag hanging from my shoulder as usual .
After getting down to the 10th level we finally noticed traces of other Adventurers .
"What will we do now?" I asked as Fer stopped for a moment .
"Hmm, there are no enemies here worth fighting seriously . " he said grumpily . "The level boss is a Venom Tarantula . " I could understand his disappointment, Fer had effortlessly knocked down eight Venom Tarantulas in a single attack in the Forest of Ishtam so this level's boss was just another 'small fry' as far as he was concerned .
"Okay, just go straight for the boss then?"
"Nuuu, let's do that . " Fer agreed so we skipped exploring the tenth level and instead headed directly to the boss room using Fer's monster-detecting ability to guide us there . Outside the boss room we found four muscular guys, obviously a party of Adventurers, patiently waiting . When they saw Fer and Dora-chan approaching they reached for their weapons in a practiced manner but they stopped when they saw me on Fer's back . "Ah, a Tamer, right?" one of them called . I nodded, not wanting to bother with the long explanation and they put their weapons away .
"Is that the boss room?" I asked and the one who had spoken, the party's leader I presumed told me it was .
"Can't you go in right now?"
The Adventurer shook his head with a confused expression on his face . "Is this your first dungeon?" he asked . When I answered yes he went on to explain further .
"You see, inside a dungeon there are various ways of doing things, rules we follow . "
・ When fighting monsters in a dungeon, the party that attacks the monster first gets priority and any dropped goods belong to that party, naturally .
・ You don't help others during a battle with monsters unless you're asked to help .
・ Whoever opens a treasure chest has priority on what it contains . Those were the basic rules of dungeon exploring as the Adventurer explained them to me .
"There is a party already in there fighting the boss . We can't go in until that fight ends . " he went on . "I should warn you though, some people in here don't agree with the rules . They snatch items dropped during someone else's fight, even steal them from other Adventurers . " He looked at me shrewdly . "Someone who's not that familiar with dungeons, the bastards might even try and kill newbies like you and take their stuff . The dungeon takes care of the dead bodies for them, leaving no evidence . Watch your back, that's all I'll say . " That was scary stuff to hear .
As he finished speaking the boss room's door creaked open . This meant the previous group of Adventurers had finished fighting the boss monsters inside and had gone down the stairs at the back of the room to the 11th level . Or, and the thought chilled me, they'd all been killed and absorbed by the dungeon, there was no way of knowing what had happened to them . The four-strong party that had been waiting went in and the door closed behind them again . It looked like they'd be some time fighting the boss and I settled down to wait .
"Hey, what are we hanging around here for?" Fer grumbled .
"Yeah, Let's just go in now!" Dora-chan chimed in .
"Don't say that, Fer, Dora-chan . " I chided . "There are rules in this dungeon and you have to abide by them . " We waited and finally the four-man party finished their battle . They collected their drops but surprisingly they came back out of the boss room .
"Good luck, you guys . " their leader said as his party members went past us towards the corridor we had come from .
"Aren't you guys going down to the next level?" I asked, puzzled at their departure .
"Oh, we always planned to stop at this floor . We all have wives and children after all and going any further down is too risky for us . Bye . " Saying that the party leader followed his compatriots along the corridor behind us . . . . why is it that such rough-looking guys have wives and children? Damn, normies go explode .
"Hey, let's go . " Dora-chan led the way into the boss room where the monsters had already regenerated, a boss Venom Tarantula and a bunch of smaller spiders (although they were 30 centimetres across, only small compared to the boss) . I identified them as Poison Spiders using my Appraisal Skill . Dora-chan blasted the Venom Tarantula with fire magic and finished it off before Fer could use any of his own attacks . I took the opportunity to shoot off some Fireballs myself at the surviving smaller spiders as revenge for hearing about the normie party's happy family life . Take that, normies! Explode! Fwoosh! Kapow! Somehow I felt better afterwards .
The Venom Tarantula drop was a poison sac which I collected before we headed for the stairs to the next level down . The 11th level was yet more small-fry, according to Fer so again we just went straight to the boss room which had a group of Orcs led by an Orc General . I expected this fight to be a tougher one but Sui-chan had woken up by this time and joined in enthusiastically, pew-pewing the bad guys along with Fer and Dora-chan . The battle with the Orcs, if you could call it that, lasted less than a minute . I felt a bit sorry for these monsters even though I knew they'd respawn in the boss room as soon as we left . I'm sorry guys, I said silently as I picked up the drops which were pieces of Orc meat . Tasty tasty Orc meat . I started running through possible recipes in my mind as we descended the stairs to the 12th level .
There were no substantial monsters on level 12 either according to Fer but we decided to go through the level this time because everyone was complaining they were hungry . We'd stop off and eat in a safe area before going straight to the boss room right afterwards . I didn't know where this level's safe area was because we didn't have a map but Fer said he could find it . After going down a few passageways triggering harmless traps and slaughtering assorted minor monsters Fer stopped at a doorway in the side of the corridor .
"This is it . " he announced so I pushed the door open and we entered . Inside was a large room, about the size of a typical school classroom . Over by the back wall there was a water fountain gurgling away, splashing into a drain . We had been told by the Guild receptionist that there were several Adventurer parties exploring the 10th to 15th levels and there were quite a few people in the safe area, I guessed about five parties in total looking at the way they were grouped together . We settled down in a vacant space near the entrance, staying together like the other parties did .
"Mukouda-san?" I turned around in surprise as I heard my name called and recognised the person who had spoken .
"Vincent?!" It was Vincent!
"It really is Mukouda-san! Long time no see!!" Vincent replied . "Hey look everybody, it really is Mukouda-san like I thought!" The people around Vincent were the Iron Will party who I had last seen in the town of Falier in the far-off Kingdom of Feenen .